Hi. I'm in NY and I've been hibernating outside for a long time. I have a long outdoor garden that's about 22ft x 6 ft. In the back on one side about three feet I have a cave. I dig about two feet down and mix the soil with peat moss to loosen it up and then I add about two feet of leaf litter and on top of that I put about 6-7 inches of pine hay (from a dead pine tree). I cover the whole cave with a pice of ply wood that is covered with a piece of pond liner (I staple the pond liner on to the ply wood.) That section is elevated so no rain water or snow will accumulate there.

This is the cave at the end of the turtle garden in the Spring


filled with the leaf litter


the pine hay goes on top


Then the cover


In the Spring when they come up, I leave the cave there for them in case it gets too hot or we have a storm or bad weather. In the Fall I mix everything up and add the leaf litter and the pine hay again.

This is the garden in the Summer

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